they come off as fairly intelligent and cool in interviews (props to fugazi and watt, etc) and then you hear their music and it's like "suck on my balls, beeotch! *rhythmic gibberish over crappy slap bass*". it could be an SNL parody if people didn't love it for some reason.

STF wrote:I think this satisfies the Crap/Not Crap requirement of being a tough call--or am I way off?

No offense, but you're way off.

CRAP. And not because of any jocky, funky, etc. quality. Their songs just suck!!! All of them!

But salut to Signore Frusciante for: (i) bouncing back from a titanic heroin addiction that probably should have killed him; (ii) recording a song called "Your Pussy's Glued To A Building On Fire"; and (iii) not being Dave Navarro.

this band may rank as #2 on my mental list of worst bands ever, right between aerosmith and, i don't know, jane's addiction. i cannot stand the chili peppers and am baffled that they have "credibility" with anyone save for the fraternity date-rape crowd, who their music is obviously best suited to. anthony kiedis is particularly unbearable, and should be put to sleep. oh, and they butchered "higher ground". CRAP, no question.

The people have spoken. Since I offered them up, I'll submit a meager defense. Sure they're dumb, and sorta gae, and the whole Navarro period was CRAP, and I haven't bought one of their records since like 8th grade, I like their recent singles. Compared to all of the angsty, tuneless CRAP on "modern rock radio" their recent singles ("By the Way", "Fortune's Faded") are oases of semi-good music. And I think it's sorta cool that they seem to be making some of their best music so late in their career. I won't snap off the channel, in other words. I like Fruciante's playing; and Flea's, at times. In fact, I tried to play like him when I was young and didn't know better.

I still own bloodsugarsexmagic. I think it has great sounds and great arrangements. "Under the Bridge" is played out to me in any context outside of the whole album. And AK has always hurt me mentally with his dull whiterap histrionic visuals.

But the album is a good soundtrack for driving, biking, etc.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:But salut to Signore Frusciante for: (i) bouncing back from a titanic heroin addiction that probably should have killed him; (ii) recording a song called "Your Pussy's Glued To A Building On Fire"; and (iii) not being Dave Navarro.

This I can agree with. Did you hear that when Frusciante was at the bottom, it was rumored that he was found to have one-sixth the standard amount of blood running through his body, and that was (obviously) infected.

Dude's teeth fell out.

I've seen former friends who were one-tenth that f-ed up never bounce back to live in the same town, much less tour the world.

I stumbled across a block of RHCP videos on the Fuse cable network a few days ago. "Give It Away", "Californication" (wtf) and "Otherside" were among the videos. I watched all of these videos through to the end in a strange exercise in masochism.

I was disappointed not to see the video for "Under The Bridge" because, really, who doesn't need to see a shirtless Anthony Kiedis running in slow motion directly toward the camera?

It now occurs to me that the phrase "a shirtless Anthony Kiedis" is completely redundant.

Vocals are irritating. John Frusciante sounds like any other guitarist who wants to sound like Hendrix. Oh, I suppose he added a few Funk licks. Wow. And one of the bass riffs on the Californiacation album was a Bomb Track rip-off.